How many SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) exist out there that have
little or no access to e-commerce channels?

Today, in order to put their offers out for the web to see, any given
Business needs to:
* Design and build a website or store
* Invest in SEO / Ads
* Build a community or somehow exploit social media to get their message across

And all that so your products can be found while searching for text
keywords or targeted by inaccurate ( at best ) affiliate platforms!

Sounds like a lousy deal to me ;)
An incremental improvement over current commerce, yes. But nothing radical.
Customers still have to "walk" into a store.

And you have to build that store, paint it, and make it look attractive.

Hmm. 

You know what I would like?
I would like to write my offerings in a spreadsheet from my notebook
and have them automatically "connect" to a global, structured Database
where affiliates, matchmaking systems, Google, etc take care of
finding and sending me a potential buyer with 90% specificity.

I give it two years before this becomes mainstream. Google already
bought Metaweb, and Good Relations + Linked Data are penetrating fast.
In two years I will be able to update a spreadsheet ( or a backend )
and get instant, highly specific visibility. No need for a designer or
even for a pitch.

Also. Keep in mind that this is not a "secondary" idea. This is an
innovation at the core of the web: Commerce and Advertising will
change.

We call this Linked Open Commerce ( in relation to Linked Data, one of
the potential tech enablers ). But it will come in many shapes, forms
and labels.

http://linkedopencommerce.com/

(download)

Click here to download:

Connecting_SMBs_and_The_Massiv.zip (483 KB)

In a world where Customer Development is starting to be defined,
studied and applied, the new scarcity will shift from lack of insights
and connections to lack of initial early adopter, customer
base. That's the new gold.

( it has always been by the way, but only now is it being said out
loud. A whole generation of entrepreneurs are hitting the road with a
much-more-likely-to-succeed strategy than locking themselves up in a
garage.)

If you don't understand a word of what I just said, follow this link.

I have tried this myself and learnt it the hard way ( by making mistakes ).

But I did realize a while ago that the actual hard part was getting customers to
try out your product, to "ignite" the sales process. So I took some
time to look around and I found a place where customers are there,
yours to take, there is also money to finance the team, etc. And I am
not talking about VC. I am talking about Companies. Big companies.

Yes. Companies are the new VCs. And if they aren't, they should be
worried. Because the rate of change is such that they simply cannot
try and insource innovation.

In fact, this is their bait to lure in top-notch brains, which will otherwise
sprout potential thunder lizards out in the wild.

You can't hire an entrepreneur. It's simply not in his DNA. But you can
get him to work for you. With you. 

So with this observation in mind I have been trying to establish a
collaboration model within companies for the last two years, and I
have learnt quite a bit. There are several risks:
* Few companies want to invest and become incubators. They may do so,
but won't do it willingly. And "sugar coating" your message is not
always a good thing. It can prove tricky.
* Intellectual property is not necessarily something visibly on the table.
* There are simply too many counterparts in any given project, each
with its own limited vision. This creates fragmentation and may
destroy the product.

I have been pushing several models into a couple of companies, and in
three of them the same thing happened.
The model made no sense until groupon came along ( in one case ) and
until linked data came along ( in the other cases ). Then it made
sense. Not only did it make sense, it made TOTAL sense and from
wasting months in meetings we switched gears violently.And things had
to be done in a rush.
No planning, no real space to develop insights. And then no one really
respects the actual insight as the product becomes "yet another
project" in the company.

So. I guess while it may sound like a good idea, I am, yet again, a
couple of years early to the party.

I am interested in hearing other experiences in this matter. How do
you negotiate with a company to establish a collaborative,
joint-venture style association instead of a two step massacre.
1. Hmm I don't get it... tell me more, tell me more. Throw everything
on the table please.
2. Oh! I do get it now. So do as I say and do it now. And also, mesh
your ideas with this other bunch of ideas.

But I insist. Companies should become VCs.

And they will.
I have this ability to live 2-4 years ahead of myself.

Anyone knows how to exploit it?